Cut from the team. Knee blows out senior year. Lost the state title. Playing time disappears. Your mistake costs the team a win. As a competitor, all these things are considered tough trials. Add to that academic pressure or conflict at home and you can feel overwhelmed.

Character is uncovered in crisis and formed in the fire. It will be revealed and refined. When we are squeezed, what comes out shows us what’s inside. In order for God to truly transform us, it takes time, pressure, and heat. He forms our character the same way he forms diamonds. When the element carbon is forced to go deeper beneath the surface of the earth it encounters extreme temperatures and pressure. Those extreme conditions make diamonds. And when they rise again to the surface, they display the brilliance of the light.

God uses trials to make us unshakeable and Him unmistakable. The more "heat and pressure" we feel, the more "heart and presence" of God we experience. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 we are told God comforts us so we can comfort others. When we face trials, we can do it with joy, expecting that God will use every piece of the pressure and pain to produce perseverance and maturity. Let your character be formed in the fire.